I have been a fan of Justin Weber & Ampsandsound from the beginning. I first heard his name on the Klipsch forum, from there we began our association (friendship). I contacted Justin because I was in a position where only Headphones were possible in my living space. After a brief discussion I bought his 2nd SE84 (First Version) it was quite petite in structure but it offered a HUGE sound, Very Musical. I have bought 4 more of Justins amps in the interim All of which were fantastic amps in there own right.

Enter my latest dealing with Justin the MOGWAI this was Justins personal amp as you may imagine it has all the bells and whistles, Like the input CineMag Transformers. 2 Years ago I was finally able to get back to speakers, I had turned my back on headphones. I was concentrating fully on the speaker aspect of audio, I built a respectable system surrounding my DIY open Baffles with which I am very HAPPY. I thought headphones were a thing of the past. Justin offered to sell his personal Mogwai and from all the press I thought why not all his other amps were great and It has speaker taps.

Mogwai offers 3 wpc in either speaker taps or Headphones (no dividing network) it should drive my single drivers with ease. The Mogwai came packed in Justins usual over the top packing fashions took me 20 minutes and a few choice swears to see the actual amp. (I Love that). Of course I tried the amp first with my main speakers and while it performed admirably I knew rather quickly I would keep my Decware SE84c monos in that position. I no longer have good or even decent headphones, what I do have is a pair of highly regarded (Rightfully so) Final Audio E2000 IEM

Mogwai is OVERKILL but what the hell, both are here and no harm can come to either. I have spent several hours now with that combination to my wife's chagrin I am now on the hunt for proper headphones. (that speaks volumes to me alone). I was not prepared for the experience I was about to have with Mogwai. For me music needs to pull out emotion if it cannot I tend to be underwhelmed, I also live for PRAT and realism. I want the performer in my room singing to me & me alone. I want to have involuntary movement, spontaneously get up and do a dance, play my air Drums & Guitar. I absolutely Love it when the little remaining hair on the back of my neck stands up and sends a shiver down my spine.

The Mogwai has done all that but there's more I was actually shocked last night playing Neal Diamond "I am I said" I got very emotional to the point tears actually welled up in my eyes. The song triggered something in me that it failed to do on my speaker setup. Stevie wonders Superstition had me up on my feet acting like a fool to the delight of our boys & my wife. The Mogwai offers as I expected a superb balanced sound extended bass and treble (though never harsh) , and a glorious tube mid range. I never expected to be brought to tears and forced to look at headphones yet again.

For me there are no downsides when it comes to sound using the Mogwai. Thank you so much Justin Mogwai is a grand slam my friend.

My Headphone amp journey to date has included Schiit, Audio Gd , Centrance, Garage Polaris, and Horizon 2, Ampsandsound SE84 and Kenzie, along with a couple headphone outs on various receivers.
 
Of all the amps to date The ember has proven the most versatile and is somewhat chameleon like when it comes to the HUNDREDS of options for tube rolling,  IMHO the available adapters for use with the 6j5 and the 7193 tube varients take the Ember to a whole new level of SQ
 
I am not big on all the audiophile terms batted around all I know is what I hear, and with the 6j5's in place I am taken back to my days of SET amps and Horn speakers.  In short if you are in the market for a headphone amp for about any headphone on the market I would recommend the Ember whole heartedly 

Where to begin..............This is the 3rd amp I have bought from ampsandsound ( http://ampsandsound.com/products/custom-amps/kenzie-headphone-amp/ ) Justin has always set a benchmark for customer service. He is forthcoming with information and always willing to help even more than a year after purchase he is still quite happy to just talk audio. All of the amps have been very well built and are beautiful to just look at
 
Sound, I have known the Kenzie was a special amp since the day I got it over a year ago, I did not know how special till I paired it with the Sennheiser HD800,  It is widely believed that the HD800 needs pairing with the proper gear to shine.  I am here to tell you the Kenzie meets the bar+
 
 
From the hundreds of threads / posts / reviews / discussions I have seen the HD800 has a reputation as Bright, with thin bass and maybe analytical, I have found anything but that to be the case. 
 
The Kenzie has my HD800 sounding very involving with great deep textured impactful bass, the highs are extended but not piercing or Hard...........The only explination I can come up with as to why My HD800's sound so different from its reputation is the gear I pair it with,  This combination also does extremely well with low level listening no loss of fidelity
 
I am not big on all the audiophile terms, I just listen to music and know what I hear / like.  And I am loving the Kenzie paired with the HD800.  I will also add I have used my HiFiMan HE500 with the Kenzie for over a year and found the Kenzie offered plenty of power / Drive for the Planers, with the design having special wound transformers that support both 32 and 600 ohm cans it would appear the Kenzie can handle about any set of cans on the market
 
I have also listened to IEM using Kenzie and background noise (noise floor) was a non issue, very nice black background
 
I was able to re-tube Kenzie with some 1940's Hytron, Kenrad, & Tung Sol 1626 tubes for under 20.00 a pair,  try that with any of the other popular triodes

My dac progression has been in the sub 1000.00 range and frankly I doubt I will ever exceed that mark further I find it hard to believe there is anything better in this price range. My musical tastes are what set my radar on the Havana, as a (N.O.S.) Non Oversampling Dac is reputed to be less harsh I wanted to hear it for myself. I come from a vinyl background and frankly most digital playback was fatiguing, frustrating, and acceptable at best (certainly not my definition of exceptional)
 
Enter Havana (NOS) , running my pc with JRiver palying Flac Loss Less, into my musical fidelity V-Link 192 converter, SPDIF into the Havana, and then connected to my Kenzie (Darling Circuit) Headphone amp,to which I connect my HiFiMan He500. My PC playback now rivals my ONLY CDP I have owned that I felt was worth owning The Electrocompanient Emc1up, for a 900.00 dac o reach the level of a 4+thousand dollar CDP was wholly unexpected and yet a pleasure to be sure
 
What can you expect from the sound, that's easy nice extension with sweet high end No grain the cymbals shimmer through decay (no hot sizzle here), Bass that is surprisingly deep and articulate (maybe not the last word in tight, But certainly not muddy or smeared), Mids that are as organic and natural as I have ever heard, You get an amazing amount of inner detail (yep you will have those moments
"Huh I have heard this song 100's of times and never heard that" ) one that stands out for me Bruce Springsteen, Seeger Sessions, Oh Mary Don't you Weep (he is actually having a conversation at the beginning of the song)  there have been other moments to be sure but you get the point The Havana has GOBBS of inner detail and yet it is not so much that you could call it analytical
 
Moral is if you are looking for a great sounding DAC that will get you very close to vinyl SQ you owe it to yourself to check out MHDT Labs Havana

After an extensive search online for a replacement for my very good Schiit Bifrost, I settled on the Dacmini, in part from comments here on Head-Fi, and the fact that Stereophile has had it as a Class A recommended component for 3 years running (2012,13,&14 I did not feel the need to go back further in my research)
 
sound is very good I have had 4 dacs now which consisted of,  Schiit uber Bifrost, Schiit Modi, Audio Gd 11.32, and California audio labs Alpha 16 bit, Of the previous the Bifrost was the best.
 
Comparing the Centrance Dacmini with Bifrost I find the mini offers better air, separation, tighter bass with extension on top and bottom............When paired with my Kenzie amp the dac simply shines
I believe I have found that synergy that is often discussed but rarely found without an exhaustive search.  The HE500 sounds better than I have ever heard it, it sounds so good it must be a sin
 
add to all that you get a class A amp built in and the value is incredible, The amp is very nice but can not hold up to my Kenzie, the tubes sound glorious with the mini
 
Color me happy with my mini...................P.S. these dont appear to pop up used often so if you see one its best to snap it up, I paid 450.00 for one that looks like new, & performs perfectly and could not be happier

Source: all lossless AIFF Files through ITunes, connected to DAC via asynchro usb2
 
Gear used: Schiit Bifrost with Uber upgrade, Schiit Valhalla amp, and Ampsandsound Se-84
 
This is my 2nd pair of quality headphones. 1st being the Sennheiser HD-650, 2nd being The HiFi Man HE500 obviously (hereafter referred to as the 500), 
Reading various threads around HeadFi started me thinking , about ortho's 2 in particular, the 500 and the Lcd2.2 my initial thoughts were to go with the Lcd2.2
They just seemed to have more praise mainly centered around the Bass presentation. My biggest concern besides paying for either was the weight there seems to be tons
of complaints about the weight
 
Up pops Underwood HiFi on a-gon selling the 500 and an email later they are at a price I cannot refuse. They ship the same day and 2 business days later they are in my hands,
Initial thoughts are packaged very well, In a nice box with accessories (I found the packaging MUCH better than the Sennheisers)  Look and feel like a very well made product and 
damn these things are heavy
 
On with the music, some of my favorite music is Acoustic with male vocals, Acoustic with female vocals, indie and classic rock, some jazz sprinkled in.  Straight out of the box I am impressed
The bass on these monsters is outstanding and the treble extension just trounces the 650 much more open with great detail retrieval, and organic voice absolutely no grain.
First session is 3 hours on my head and no issues with thee weight I cannot help my self I am all over the place choosing random albums among 1500 album library. day 2 is basically a repeat of day 1 and still no issues with the weight. Enter day 3  and after about an hour i have a pain on top of my head, turns out the padding on the bar could be better. I took a 1/2" thick
piece of high density foam I had laying around and cut it out wrapped a piece of cloth around it to hold it in place pulled the cups out and now no bar, feels great. ( I believe my job requirement that I wear a hard hat 8 hours a day helped cope with the weight)
 
Visiting songs that I know to be sibilant proved the 500 can ease that pain, The 500 as also uncovered another layer of detail the senns could not. I will admit I am not a huge Jazz fan
I like some songs but on the whole I just don't enjoy the genre and typically a song or 2 is my limit. Enter the 500 and it is just so revealing and dynamic I find myself setting through
the whole album
 
I think the fact that I can set through an entire album is the highest praise I can throw at any headphone or speaker.  If you want a headphone with super bass and great high end extension with an
overall balanced sound, that adds a level of realism to vocals. This may be your cup of tea. It certainly deserves and audition 

First i want to say you wont find better customer service, Justin actually cares about his product and his customers. He just wants to build quality products that keep his customers happy
 
The amp is built like a tank, when you open the considerable packing and finally do get to handle the amp it is immediately obvious how well built this amp is, Very solid.
Aesthetics are nice as well, No gold this and silver that to increase the price, Just very nice attention to detail and quality craftsmanship, with quality components for a handsome, solid small
foot print amp, that would look great on your desk or in your rack
 
I don't typically get into the review process, I don't know the terms used. I know what sounds good with over 25 years in the hobby, I just never got into all the hype, and lingo. I love music !!!!!!!
 
Sound: If your a fan of single ended amps (and I am)  then you will like what this amp has to offer, It gives you all the good attributes  without the syrupy warmness. The SE-84 still leans a bit warm as tubes should but its not over done. Detail retrieval is as good as it gets IMHO, I am loving my music collection all over again. The balance between lows mids and highs Is very good with no one thing sticking out
above the rest. I often see reviews where one singles out treble etc... as bright, or harsh and so on,  Upon listening to this amp my first thoughts were WOW this thing is musical, toes tapping, air guitar strumming, head bobbing.............Looking like a 50 year old fool, I don't care I was in the zone. With more time I began to notice the finer points. I Heard new details in old favorites, the cymbals just seemed to shimmer through decay (no sizzle), note would hang in the air longer, voices were more life like with wonderful bredth, Bass was deep and defined with decent impact.
 
This amp has found a permanent home in my headphone rig, and with a quality build I feel I could pass it down to my son. Hopefully a long time from now 
 

A pic with the tubes a glowing, and look at that beautiful wood work
 
Here is a link to Justin Webers ampsandsound  Se-84
 
http://ampsandsound.com/products/amps/se-84/